64 Mr. MoxTAC.r's Description of Marine Animals 
those of my friends within my reach, possess, in figure or descrip- 
tion, any thing representing the object in question. 
The Nereis is a very numerous class, and, doubtless, a variety 
of new species might be added ; but the great difficulty of defin- 
ing the distinction of some of those already described, makes it 
still more difficult to determine what might be added: I submit, 
however, the description of four, whose specific marks are suffi- 
ciently strong to induce me to believe that they are new. 
To this list of marine animals I shall only add one other, and 
that of the genus Asterias. 
In this genus I have not been able to discover much new mat- 
ter, but am inclined to believe the species, at least those of Bri- 
tish origin, have been already multiplied beyond its natural 
limits ; as, no doubt, several described by Borlase, and after- 
wards by Pennant and others, for distinct, (upon the authority of 
the former,) are only varieties of a single species, the A. aculeata. 
The one which I have described is of so extraordinary a growth, 
with respect to the disproportion between its arms and body, that 
it cannot be confounded with any other species, and I suspect 
has not been described ; at least nothing like it has come to my 
knowledge. 
Having thus enumerated the subjects described and figured in 
the accompanying sheets, I beg leave to submit them, with diffi- 
dence, to that Society of which I have the honour of being a 
member; not doubting but the efforts of an individual to elucidate 
any part of natural history, and in particular that of his own 
country, will be received with those indulgences to which a re- 
mote situation from the metropolis and vortex of knowledge may 
in some degree entitle him, as few private libraries are capable of 
affording sufficient information on the various subjects so neces- 
sary to the natural historian. 
The 
